Kaj_Sotala comments on Silver Chairs, Paternalism, and Akrasia - Less Wrong

36 Post author: dclayh 09 April 2009 09:24PM

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Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 10 April 2009 04:21:59PM *  2 points [-]

People are mentioning different "I am currently conflicted between two decisions" scenarios in the comments, but I don't think those are very good examples of the problem described in the post. In that case, it is a single person who feels torn to two different directions. He has difficulty deciding between those two, yes, but neither of the forces pulling at him is by itself conscious and self-aware (as far as we know). The desire of a sentient being isn't being violated when somebody manages to make a difficult decision.

Comment author: pjeby 10 April 2009 04:58:46PM 1 point [-]

People are mentioning different "I am currently conflicted between two decisions" scenarios in the comments, but I don't think those are very good examples of the problem described in the post.

Yep. NLP calls the main subject of this post "sequential incongruity" (having differently-motivated states that are separate in time) to distinguish it from garden-variety incongruity (indecision/active inner conflict at a single point in time).